Cơm Cánh Gà Chiên Nước Mắm: Sticky Fish-Sauce Wings Rice Plate in Adelaide Chinatown
★ As featured in Glam Adelaide — 2025 SA Restaurant & Catering Awards finalist
There’s a moment, right after the plate lands, when the steam off the rice meets the smell of caramelised fish sauce and garlic — and every table nearby looks over. That’s Cơm Cánh Gà Chiên Nước Mắm at Bà Năm on Grote Street: golden fish-sauce glazed chicken wings piled over steamed white rice, with sliced tomato and cucumber, pickled carrot and daikon, a little ramekin of chilli nước chấm, and a small bowl of clear green-onion soup on the side. It’s $20, it’s a complete meal, and if you’ve ever loved our wings as a starter, this is the plate that turns them into lunch or dinner proper.
What is Cơm Cánh Gà Chiên Nước Mắm?
Break the name down and it tells you everything: cơm is rice, cánh gà is chicken wings, chiên is fried, and nước mắm is fish sauce. So — fried chicken wings glazed in fish sauce, served over rice. The wings are fried until the skin is golden and crisp at the edges, then tossed through a hot glaze of fish sauce, sugar and garlic that reduces to a sticky, lacquered coat. Sweet, salty, savoury and deeply garlicky all at once.
The rice-plate version is what you’re looking at here: a proper mound of steamed white rice finished with green onion, the wings stacked alongside, and the classic Vietnamese rice-plate accompaniments — fresh tomato and cucumber rounds, shredded pickled carrot and daikon for sharp contrast, chilli nước chấm for spooning over, and a small clear soup with green onion to sip between bites. It’s the same complete-plate format we cover in our broken rice guide, and it belongs to the same family as our Cơm Sườn grilled pork chop plate.
If you want a fried egg on top — and honestly, most regulars do — the Trứng Chiên add-on is $3.
Why the glaze and the rice belong together
On its own, fish-sauce caramel is intense. That’s the point of it. But over rice, the glaze does something better: every drip and smear that comes off the wings gets caught by the grains underneath, so by the time you’ve finished the chicken, the rice itself has become the second course. Steamed rice is the quiet partner that makes the loud flavour work.
The pickles matter just as much. Sticky-sweet-salty needs acid, and the pickled carrot and daikon cut straight through the richness — the same balancing act that makes a good bowl of phở more than the sum of its parts. Then the little green-onion soup resets your palate between wings. It’s a small bowl, easy to overlook, but it’s there for a reason: this is how a rice plate is meant to be eaten in southern Việt Nam, alternating bites and sips rather than powering through.
If you’re curious about the wings themselves — how the glaze is built, why the garlic goes in when it does — we’ve written about that in detail on our Cánh Gà Chiên Nước Mắm entrée page.
$20 rice plate vs $16 entrée: which one do you order?
Both exist on the menu, and they do different jobs.
The entrée version is $16 for five pieces — a share plate. It’s what you order for the middle of the table while you wait on bowls of Phở Tái or Bún Bò Huế. Wings for everyone, no rice, no full plate sides.
Cơm Cánh Gà Chiên Nước Mắm is $20 and it’s yours alone: wings plus rice, fresh vegetables, pickles, nước chấm and soup. It’s a one-plate meal built to fill you up, not a snack to pass around. If you’re eating solo, or you want the wings to be your lunch rather than the warm-up act, this is the order.
Simple rule of thumb: sharing a table with phở people, get the entrée. Hungry and it’s all about you, get the plate.
The $20 rice-plate family
The wings plate sits alongside four siblings, all $20, all built on the same rice-plus-sides foundation:
- Cơm Sườn — the classic grilled pork chop, marinated and charred
- Cơm Sườn Bì Chả — pork chop plus shredded pork skin and steamed egg meatloaf, the full traditional trio
- Cơm Gà Nướng — grilled lemongrass chicken
- Cơm Gà Da Giòn — crispy-skin chicken, all about the crackle
The wings plate is the stickiest and sweetest of the five — the one for people who want their fingers involved. If you’re new to Vietnamese rice plates altogether, our Cơm Tấm guide is the best place to start.
Recipes from Trảng Bàng, cooked on Grote Street
Bà Năm is named for Bà Năm Lời, who has been cooking since the 1970s in Trảng Bàng, Tây Ninh, in southern Việt Nam. Her grandson Huynh Nguyen and owner Thi Gai Vo brought her recipes to Adelaide in 2023, opening at 65 Grote Street in Chinatown. The fish-sauce glaze on these wings comes from that same southern home-cooking tradition — bold, sweet-savoury, unapologetic.
The same care runs through the whole menu. Huynh makes Sunday farm runs for locally sourced beef, and the 18-hour broth that cooks the paper-thin “red coin” rare beef in our Phở Tái simmers overnight, every night. We say it plainly: this is not a luxury venue, just very genuine.
A little recognition: Bà Năm was a finalist in the Vietnamese Restaurant category at the 2025 Hostplus SA Restaurant & Catering Awards, and Glam Adelaide featured the story behind grandma’s recipes — later covering us in their 2025 Adelaide restaurants roundup as a finalist, not a winner, and we’re happy to say it straight. We’re not a luxury venue, just very genuine — but it’s nice when people notice.
What to order alongside
The plate is a complete meal, so sides are optional — but if the table wants more:
- Gỏi Cuốn Tôm Thịt ($14) — fresh rice-paper rolls, a cool counterpoint to the sticky glaze
- Chả Giò Thịt ($14) or Hoành Thánh Chiên ($14) — if you’re committing fully to fried and golden
- Trà Tắc ($10) or Trà Đào Cam Sả ($10) — citrus and sourness cut the sweetness of the glaze
- Nước Dừa ($8) — coconut water, the gentle option
- Cà Phê Nâu Đá ($8) — Vietnamese iced coffee to finish, strong and sweet over ice
And if someone at your table insists on soup instead, the Phở Tái with its red-coin rare beef starts at $20 small / $22 large, or there’s the stone-pot Phở Thố Đá at $25. Spicy end of the spectrum: Bún Bò Huế (Small $20 / Large $22).
Visiting Bà Năm
You’ll find us at 65 Grote Street, Adelaide SA 5000, in the heart of Chinatown, a short walk from Adelaide Central Market. We’re open seven days, 11:00am–9:00pm (until 9:30pm October–March over summer), public holidays included.
Peak lunch and dinner can mean an honest 15–30 minute wait — the wings are fried and glazed to order, and we’d rather be straight with you about that. Bookings are on OpenTable; for groups of 8 or more, call us on (08) 8151 0106. You can also order ahead through our app at order.phobanam.com.au.
Come hungry, order the plate, and don’t be shy about picking the wings up with your hands. That’s how they’re meant to be eaten.
Frequently asked questions
How much is the Cơm Cánh Gà Chiên Nước Mắm rice plate at Bà Năm?
The full rice plate is $20 and includes fish-sauce glazed chicken wings, steamed rice, fresh tomato and cucumber, pickled carrot and daikon, chilli nước chấm and a small green-onion soup. A fried egg (Trứng Chiên) can be added for $3.
What's the difference between the rice plate and the wings entrée?
The entrée is $16 for five wings, served as a share plate without the full rice-plate sides. The $20 rice plate is a complete individual meal — wings plus rice, fresh vegetables, pickles, dipping sauce and soup. See our Cánh Gà Chiên Nước Mắm entrée guide for the share-plate version.
Are the wings very spicy?
The glaze itself is sweet-savoury rather than hot — fish sauce, sugar and garlic. The heat comes from the chilli nước chấm on the side, so you control how spicy each bite gets.
When is Bà Năm open and do I need to book?
Bà Năm is open seven days from 11:00am to 9:00pm (until 9:30pm October–March), including public holidays. Bookings are via OpenTable; groups of 8 or more should call (08) 8151 0106. Peak times can carry a 15–30 minute wait.
Where is Bà Năm?
Bà Năm is at 65 Grote Street, Adelaide SA 5000, in Chinatown — a short walk from Adelaide Central Market and easy to reach from the CBD.